• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.15-29
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• 2011

This study was carrying out research on the geometry of Sulbas${\={u}}$tras as parts of looking for historical roots of oriental mathematics, The Sulbas${\={u}}$tras(rope's rules), a collection of Hindu religious documents, was written between Vedic period(BC 1500~600). The geometry of Sulbas${\={u}}$tras in ancient India was studied to construct or design for sacrificial rite and fire altars. The Sulbas${\={u}}$tras contains not only geometrical contents such as simple statement of plane figures, geometrical constructions for combination and transformation of areas, but also algebraic contents such as Pythagoras theorem and Pythagorean triples, irrational number, simultaneous indeterminate equation and so on. This paper examined the key features of the geometry of Sulbas${\={u}}$tras and the geometry of Sulbas${\={u}}$tras for the construction of the sacrificial rite and the fire altars. Also, in this study we compared geometry developments in ancient India with one of the other ancient civilizations.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.41-52
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• 2010

Ancient Indian mathematical works, all composed in Sanskrit, usually consisted of a section of sturas in which a set of rules or problems were stated with great economy in verse in order to aid memorization by a student. And rules or problems of the mathematics were transmitted both orally and in manuscript form.Indian mathematicians made early contributions to the study of the decimal number system, arithmetic, equations, algebra, geometry and trigonometry. And many Indian mathematicians were appearing one after another in Ancient. This paper is a comparative study of mathematics developments in ancient India and the other ancient civilizations. We have found that the Indian mathematics is quantitative, computational and algorithmic by the principles, but the ancient Greece is axiomatic and deductive mathematics in character. Ancient India and the other ancient civilizations mathematics should be unified to give impetus to further development of mathematics education in future times.